Democrats single out Texas as the nation’s vilest villain in the ‘war on women’

Texas state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte co-chaired the Democratic National Convention in 2008. (AP Photo/ John Leyba)

Texas Republicans have been singled out as villains in the war on women by none other than … Texas Democrats.

At a Texas delegation breakfast earlier this week, State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte “warned that the attack on reproductive rights had roots in Texas, with the Legislature’s law to require those seeking an abortion to first undergo a sonogram,” reported Robert T. Garrett for Dallas Morning News.

Carol Alvarado, a Democrat from Houston, described the sonogram requirement as “government intrusion at its best … a climax in government intrusion,” while trying to explain to her colleagues at the Texas House of Representatives that the sonogram might have to be obtained by using a vaginal probe.

“They just don’t respect us [women]. They don’t think we’re smart enough to make our own decisions,” Van de Putte said of the Republicans at the DNC.

Van de Putte is not the only one to draw comparisons between Texas and the state of national politics during the Democratic National Convention.

“What Rick Perry has done to Texas, that’s exactly what Mitt Romney wants to do to the rest of the country,” Cynthia Wilson of Dallas told Dallas Morning News. “I join many women here in saying, ‘No, we’re not going to let that happen.’”

“If you want to see what a Romney presidency might be like, look at Texas,” Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood and daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, told The Daily Beast.

Richards spoke at the convention Wednesday night. Besides saying that both her mother and grandmother are from Texas, Richards said, ”Back in Texas, we say that you dance with them that brung you. President Obama brought women to this dance and we’re staying with him all the way through November!”

It’s no surprise that Richards is not happy with her home state. Planned Parenthood is fighting a hard battle in Texas. At the end of August, a federal appeals court ruled that Texas can cut funding to organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, linked to abortions. Richards and Planned Parenthood have already appealed the federal court ruling.

Mimi Swartz, executive editor of Texas Monthly, recently evoked a different saying that Texans might be familiar with. In her piece Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives, she wrote, “Texas is heaven for men and dogs, but it’s hell for women and horses.”

The Republicans have found their champion in the outgoing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has been playing defense on behalf of the party prior to the DNC. She wrote an Op-ed Unfriendly to women? Not my GOP for the CNN web site after telling Candy Crowley that Republicans “don’t have a problem with women.”